Thanks For The Memories
by lilhistorian
Summary: "just so you know, everything about this is illegal."
1. Worth It

"Just so you know, everything about this is illegal."

"You don't think I know that?"

"You're absolutely insane."

"And you love me for it."

"I am _trying_ to have a serious conversation with you. We've done crazy things before, but this? This is nuttier than peanut brittle."

Grace sighs and turns away from her whiteboard, where she had been writing.

"You don't think I'm aware of the risks, Ellie?" she questions as she settles onto her bed, across from her older sister. "I've been laying awake at night going over the consequences, but you know what conclusion I always come to?"

Ellie raises an eyebrow, prompting the girl to go on.

"It's worth it," Grace states.

The older of the two flops down into a desk chair, covering her eyes dramatically.

"But stealing the _time machine_? Grace, that's _treason_. As soon as we came back, we'd be whisked off to jail faster than we arrived."

"Rufus would be back though."

Ellie avoids her sister's eyes, absentmindedly picking up their cat.

Whose name was also Rufus.

No matter where Ellie looked, she couldn't escape something pertaining to him.

Not their cat Rufus.

The Rufus that piloted the Lifeboat, the Rufus that had been Jiya's boyfriend, the Rufus that loved Star Wars more than life itself.

The Rufus that got killed by Rittenhouse.

"Ellie," Grace continues, anxiously running her fingers through her hair, "I need you. I don't know how to operate the time machine yet, and I don't-"

"Let's say I go along with your plan," the older girl interrupts. "How the hell do we save him?"

A victorious smile slowly spreads across Grace's face as she hops up and grabs a whiteboard marker. "I thought you'd never ask."


	2. Drop Kick

"I'm already regretting this and we haven't even gotten all of our bags packed yet."

"Zip it," Grace hisses. "You are not backing out now. I already lied to Mom. I've already got blood on my hands."

"You're way too dramatic," Ellie sighs, rolling her eyes.

"We're about to steal an actual time machine, Ellie," she says, attempting to stuff two notebooks into a backpack. "We passed dramatic a long time ago."

Ellie amusingly watches as her little sister struggles with trying to fit everything into her bag. "Why are you taking notebooks? It's not like your gonna have time to write."

The girl pauses, thinking. "What if we come back and they never existed? I'm not taking that chance."

Ellie scoffs. "Momma's girl!"

"Daddy's girl!" Grace shoots back easily.

They've yelled over this before.

After a few more moments of wrestling with her backpack, Grace finally gets it zipped and looks over to see what progress Ellie has made.

"You ready?" she asks, and Ellie laughs as she rises from her perch on Grace's bed.

"I've been ready for the past ten minutes," she says shouldering her pack. "Did you get your pocketknife?"

The younger of the two pats her jeans pocket. "Got it. You?"

"I never leave home without it."

After extensive research, the girls came to the conclusion that Mason Industries only had two night guards and that if they were careful, they wouldn't run into them.

Ellie had left a window in the basement open so when the girls pulled into the parking lot and slinked around the edges of the building, they could drop in without setting off an alarm.

"Are you sure that they'll be in different parts of the building?" Ellie asks, peering out into the hallway. "We can't save Rufus if we get caught."

"Relax. I've been planning this for weeks," Grace responds. "You think I'm gonna let some security guards hinder my mission?"

And then she adds, "Plus, even if we _do_ get caught, you're like seven feet tall, so you can just drop-kick 'em."

Ellie shrugs. "I mean, I could-" The girl immediately quiets, putting a finger to her lips. "Someone's coming."

"I told you that one guard usually walks this corridor between 9:30 and 10:00," Grace explains, checking her watch. "And it's 9:56. He should be gone soon."

And she was right.

The girls were able to dart down the hallway, and into the main room where they stored the time machine, without issue.

Now came the hard part.

Actually _stealing_ the time machine.


	3. Might Want To Hold On

Ellie didn't know what was harder: Stealing the time machine or actually getting her little sister _into_ the time machine.

The problem wasn't climbing up into it; the problem was that Grace was second-guessing her plan and would _not_ budge.

"Grace," Ellie hisses as she turns away from where she had just opened the door, "we can't save Rufus if we don't even _steal_ the time machine."

Still, her sister never moves, continuing to gape up at the machine.

"It's not like you haven't seen it before," the older of the two whispers, grabbing her sister's arm. "Now let's go before the guard comes back."

That got her moving.

In three swift motions, Grace slings her backpack up into the piece of metal and lifts herself in after it, then turns around and dangles her hand out to help Ellie in.

After both girls are safely inside with the door securely closed behind them, Grace pulls her phone out and starts typing a quick message.

"Who are you texting?" Ellie asks suspiciously as she settles into the pilot's seat.

"Mom. And Katie, too. I'm telling them that we love them and not to worry."

"Mom?" the older girl practically yells. "Are you serious?"

"Ellie, chill," Grace scolds. "It's not like she can get here in time to stop us anyway."

Ellie presses her hands to her forehead, reality hitting her. "Oh my God. Oh my _God_! Grace! We're about to steal a _time machine_! To go back to a time we've only heard about!" The girl starts to breath louder and louder, and Grace become alarmed.

"Hey, hey, Ellie, it's okay," she says, rubbing her sister's knee. "I promise, I'm not gonna let you get hurt and you're not gonna let me get hurt. We're gonna find mom and dad and we'll tell them about Rufus and what they can do to prevent his death and then we can come home, okay?"

Ellie's breathing slows, and she gives a feeble nod. "Okay."

As soon as her older sister turns to face the piloting controls, Grace sinks down into her chair and expertly buckles herself up.

"Too bad I know everything about this thing except how to actually pilot it," she sighs, straightening her ponytail.

Ellie shoots a small smile towards her sister. "You ready?" she asks shakily.

"Ready as I'll ever be."

The older girl flips a few switches, and Grace feels the machine start to rumble.

"Might want to hold on!" Ellie calls as the roaring grows louder, and her little sister grips her seatbelt, her knuckles turning white.

The last thing Grace sees before she closes her eyes is her sister's light brown hair flying.


	4. Now or Never

"Are we here?" Grace asks, out of breath.

The two girls can hear muffled voices outside of the machine.

Ellie pushes her hair out of her face. "I hope so. If not, we're about to step out and find guns pointed straight at us."

The smaller girl sighs heavily as she unbuckle her seatbelt and crouches by the door. "We'll probably still find a gun in our face." She pauses. "Dad, remember?"

"Damn it. I kinda have a thing against getting shot at."

Grace flashes her older sister a reassuring smile. "He won't shoot without knowing who we are, I promise."

Then she adds, "Plus, he would never shoot two cute girls like us."

Ellie grins, squatting down next to her sister in front of the hatch. "You're cute. I'm not."

"BET!" Grace shoots back.

The older girl laughs lightly. "Ready?"

"Now or never."


	5. We Come In Peace

"What the hell kind of time machine is that?!"

"None I've ever seen before, that's for sure."

"The question is, where did it come from?"

"And who's in it?!"

"Guys!" Jiya calls from her computer. "It's nothing I've ever seen before..."

"Where's it from?" Wyatt yells, impatient.

"I don't see how...guys," she says, looking up from her computer, her eyes wide. "It's from the future." 

"The - the future? Like, before now?" Lucy sputters, running her hands through her hair, glancing around the room to gauge everyone else's reactions.

"How is that even possible?" Wyatt demands.

"I mean, it's actually very possible," Rufus interrupts. "We go back to the past. What's stopping someone from the future from coming back to _their_ past?"

"Which is our present," Mason adds.

Everyone jumps at the sound of a loud thump and then muffled laughter from inside of the machine.

Lucy nudges Wyatt forward, encouraging him to figure out who or _what_ this was. "Well, master sergeant. This one's on you. Get your gun out."

He sighs, pulling his firearm from its holster on his hip. "Yes, ma'am." 

Quickly, he takes the few strides it takes to get to the time machine and raises his gun to the door.

"Ready," Wyatt mouths as the door slides open.

But what he wasn't expecting was that two teenage girls were gonna tumble down on top of him.

And they were both laughing their heads off.

"What the hell?!" Wyatt grumbles as soon as they pick themselves up off the floor.

Still laughing, by the way.

"Who are you?" Lucy questions, trying to stifle her giggles at the sight of her boyfriend tangled up with two girls in the middle of the bunker.

Everyone else is still too stunned to utter a word.

The oldest brushes off her jeans and the youngest straightens her ponytail.

"We're from the future," the brunette one, the one that was about six feet tall, says.

She has an accent that Lucy has never really heard before. Russian? Turkish?

"Yeah," the blond one agrees, smiling a little. "2038, to be exact."

Everyone's jaws drop.

2038?!

"Excuse me, you said 2038?" Rufus asks, finally finding the courage to speak. "As in, 19 years from now?"

They both nod in unison.

"Why are you here?" Wyatt pipes up, lowering his gun cautiously.

The brunette turns to face the blond girl. Or more like, looks down at her. She's got a good foot on her.

The smaller one looks Lucy straight in the eye. "Promise you won't freak?"

Lucy glances around and notices that everyone is looking straight at her. She finally nods.

"Okay then," the brunette says, taking a step towards the historian, the younger one right behind her.

"We're your daughters," blondie blurts. "And we're here to save Rufus."


End file.
